Students are contacted on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Instagram by “promoters” who encourage them to use paid essays so they can pass their schoolwork.
A memo from Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) said it was suspected that details of the assignments were either provided by other students in exchange for discounts, or that students had been hired as “promoters” on campuses.
The background note stated that certain types of students were especially at risk from using “essay mills” for cheating assignments, including postgraduates and international students.
The briefing note explained: “Certain groups of learners appear to be more vulnerable to using assignment writing services. In particular: international students where the pressure to succeed is very high and a high degree of shame is associated with failure.
†[Also] postgraduates who are again heavily invested in success and students may have additional financial and other pressures to deal with; and students in business and computer science (and related fields).”
The memo further explained how there had been tremendous growth in essay factories that offered “custom writing” to individual studies.
QQI said international research has found that as many as one in seven students may have used a contract fraud service.
Anecdotal evidence suggested this had increased during the pandemic.
The memo — which was sent to the Higher Education Authority last year — states that “academic integrity alerts” have been sent to colleges every six weeks since March 2021.
In a statement, QQI said digital platforms are increasingly being used by essay factories to target students.
A spokeswoman said they set up systems with TikTok, Google, Facebook and Instagram where they could report profiles, posts and search results that offered services that compromised academic integrity.